Peace of Mind
by GreatGoogilyMoogily
Summary: ABANDONED, ADOPTED BY HalfLidded. Their deaths was all it took to take it away. And a young woman living in a town out in nowhere was just what he needed to get it back.
1. Enough is Enough

There were bodies all around him. Every inch of ground was either covered in blood, weapons, or the mutilated remains of human life.

Some were allies.

Some were enemies.

Some were people too mangled, with uniforms too bloodstained and destroyed to tell which side they had been on.

But more important than which side they had fought for, they were all humans. Each and every one of them was a living breathing creature that had feelings, memories, hopes, dreams, and people who were important to them. And now all of those lives were ended, cut like a piece of rope for no reason other than for the sake of one man's revenge.

The numbness had overwhelmed him now, the feelings for those who had fallen disappearing, and now he was left with a cold hollow numbness that felt as if someone had ripped a hole where his heart and lungs should have been and filled the then vacant space with a large chunk of ice.

The allied bodies still caused a small feeling in his stomach, a sort of nausea that had nothing to do with his grisly surroundings. Bodies of the enemies, however, were nothing to him. Apathy was the only emotion he could think to spare to those who would follow a madman on his quest for the death of thousands of innocents.

Then there were the bodies that hurt the most, the ones that left a bad taste in his mouth every time he thought of them and the smiles, scowls, and lazy grins that he would never see again. At least for one of those things he was filled with a small amount of comfort.

The first amongst them was a girl he thought of as a sister, a head covered in pink hair that brought attention to her in a crowd was now caked with blood, dirt, and smashed leaves. The face that he had crushed on when he was young suffered from a deep hole that went into the back of her head and left chunks of her brain squeezing out and onto the ground. She was the first to die, at the hands of the boy that she loved, from a Earth Element attack that launched a rock the size of a baseball through her like she was made of paper.

The second was certainly less gruesome, though it didn't make him feel any less pain than the first. A tall man with silver hair and clothes that even before the battle had looked messy and uncared for was littered with superficial cuts. Ironically, he did not die in battle against his former student, but had been killed by a kunai to the back from a random soldier who's name would never be remembered. The great copy-cat nin killed by a nobody that had likely never made it past Chunnin rank in Otogakure. What a fucked up world we live in, huh?

And finally the cause of this whole god damned bloody mess. A black-haired man who could barely pass as such with girly features that made pretty women look like trolls. He looked like a princess from a dream world where everything was all pixie dust, lollipops, and leprechauns. It was the kind of world where there was always a happy ending and it would fade out with music playing while the prince would get some off stage.

Not here though.

Here was the real world, and that fuckwit had lost his life before he could do anything to make the happy ending for himself on Konoha's ashes.

He had made damn sure of that.

The body was barely recognizable after he had gotten done with it, from bruises on the small spots of flesh that still remained intact, to the bones ripping through organs and muscle like a knife through tissue paper. It had left a rancid smell in the air, like someone had left a bucket of seafood scraps out in the sun for a few days then pissed in it.

The lifeless eyes of his severed head stared from the pike that had been driven up what remained of his esophagus, coming straight out the top of his head at an odd angle. The wood had splintered slightly when it had made contact with the bone that marked the top of his throat.

All that still wasn't enough though, he should have had much worse done to him. Much, much worse.

He couldn't help the small sigh that escaped his lips at that thought, as the revenge he wanted so badly after he had first seen Sakura die turned out to be a worthless thing. Honestly it made no sense to him why Sasuke would abandon his whole live for this kind of victory.

It didn't make him feel all that better, and the only real satisfaction he got from it was knowing that Konoha was safe for now.

That thought brought a small twinge of humor to his eyes, sure Konoha was safe. It probably would be for all of ten seconds until another damn enemy hellbent on the end of his village rose up and tried again where everyone else had failed. But who knows, he may just be the lucky bastard who could pull it off.

That was a bitter thought if there ever was one. Though he supposed that it was also a true thought.

For the life of him he started to question why he was doing this anymore, and he honestly couldn't come up with an answer that brought his mind a bit of peace. There wasn't all that much he had left there. With the deaths of his teammates only five members of the original twelve genins remained. Team Gai had lost Tenten in a battle with Kisame after being forced under water and devoured by water sharks. Ino and Chouji died when Madara made his first attempt on the village two years ago trying to use a Shintenshin with Nikudan Sensha to take him down. It failed miserably, and Shikamaru killed himself after the battle was over, bringing Team Ten to a complete end.

Team Eight had lost Shino on a routine scouting mission to Rice Country when they were ambushed by a group of twenty Sound-nins, the village having been brought under the control of Sasuke by this point. Kiba and Sai had escaped only because he had stayed behind to try and give them enough time to escape back to the village. By the time his fight was over he had killed fourteen of them, and would have kept going had he not completely exhausted his chakra doing so.

Those were just the deaths of those close to him, and if he were to go into the deaths of acquaintances and the shinobi who he had never met the list would stretch on much longer.

And enough was enough.

As soon as he got back to Konoha he was quitting this damned job and moving out of that god-forsaken city to some small village in the middle of nowhere. He would learn to farm, buy some land, and live the rest of his natural born life in silence. Screw being Hokage, screw staying here, and screw the consequences of his actions. This had gone on for far too long.

And with that thought in mind, he turned South and left the bodies behind.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

"You're sure then?"

"I've never been more sure in my life."

Tsunade let out a deep sigh. She had known this would be a conversation that wouldn't be enjoyable from the moment that he had walked in the room with the all too familiar look of utter defeat locked in his eyes. He was giving up and wanted to leave his village and home behind to off to god knows where and **farm** of all things.

And honestly, she couldn't blame him even a little bit.

He needed time away from the village, she had too when she had lost Dan and Nawaki. He had lost the last goal he had, along with the three people that were closer to him than anyone else, sans her and perhaps Iruka.

And that doesn't even take into account the fact that Uzumaki Naruto had put more into his friendships than anyone else she knew. With the childhood he had it wasn't surprising that the loss of his closest friends was hurting him this much.

"Look, I understand what you're going through and I know that sometimes the best course of action is to take a break, but I want you to think about this."

"I have thought about it. I had three days to run it through my mind on the way back and I really don't see anything that would make more sense for me to do right now."

She couldn't help but rub her forehead after that one. She had known it was unlikely a few words on her part would be enough to change his mind, but she couldn't help the fact that she wanted to cling onto the little bit of hope that she had left.

"Alright. I'll give you a travel pass and suspend you from active duty, you'll still be a ninja and I can still call you back if we go to war, but other than that you're free. I'm gonna miss you brat."

"Thanks."

"Just keep in mind that your current position isn't going to change if you get through this and want to come back."

"I will baa-chan."

She thought he wouldn't likely be back for a long time.

He though he would never be back.

But she knew better than he did. This place had a weird way of dragging you back into it's clutches and making you love it again no matter how badly the memories hurt. First hand experience taught her that it was impossible to really escape from Konoha.

And while on days that paperwork was plentiful and problems were everywhere she cursed the damn power this place had for placing her at the spot she was at, right now she couldn't have been happier. It was doubtful she would ever see him again if not for that little rule.

So for now she would let him go, and wait patiently until things worked themselves out.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N:** Okay, first story's first chapter. A rather short one I know, but I hope they'll get longer from here on out.

If you notice any inconsistencies in the story, please leave them in reviews and I'll get to fixing them right away.

Also, yes this will be a NaruHina and Hinata is not a ninja. You'll be seeing her soon enough, so keep reading.

**EDIT 10/5/09:** Okay, so I wrote the first chapter for this at 5 in the morning when I got a little flash of inspiration and posted it without proof-reading. So naturally when I got back home from school and bothered to read the whole thing I was honestly hitting myself for writing it like that. I literally doubled the size of this chapter with new paragraphs and such, and like it a lot more now.

Let that be a lesson out there to everyone, don't write when you're so tired you can't see straight.


	2. Old Friends in Wave

A/n: Disclaimer: Me no own nothing.

I forgot to mention that at this point Naruto is 20. It's in the spring of a year right after his twentieth birthday, meaning him and all the surviving Rookie 9 are the same age with Team Gai being twenty one obviously.

Also, 0 reviews makes me sad. The few favorites I got makes it better though.

Now onwards to chapter two!

**XXXXXXXXXX**

It had been four years since Pein leveled Konoha and he had been forced to move into his new apartment.

It was a fairly nice place, much better than the old run down apartment he had lived in for most of his life. It wasn't an expensive place by any stretch of the imagination, but it was comfortable and reflected who he was rather well. Unfortunately, '_who he was' _was a complete and total slob. He had been forced to use seven Kage Bunshin to clean the place up before he could get everything sealed away.

He stood in the doorway now, everything he owned backed into a single backpack that was hung loosely around his shoulders. Despite the fact that he never spent all that much time at his apartment, as he was always on missions, eating out, or training his ass off, there was still a pang of regret that he would never see the place again. It held some happy memories, such as his eighteenth birthday, which was the legal drinking age for shinobi and he had gotten roaring drunk with Kakashi and tried to hit on a lamp that he thought had been a shapely woman.

Still, a few good memories in a single building weren't going to keep him from remembering all the miserable ones he had from around the village. The times he had spent on the couch lamenting the death of one of his friends, the glares he had received in his youth, and the nights he spent crying himself to sleep wishing that he had parents were certainly powerful enough incentives to leave.

While plenty were faded with time, the fresh scars that had been etched in his mind only recently weighed heavily on him.

It was of simple matter of him not wanting to be in this place anymore. Not the apartment, not the village, and hell not even the damn country.

He had given up on his dream to become Hokage a time ago. The exact time was something he couldn't pinpoint, but sometime around Chouji and Ino's death he had just lost the will to put the weight of the entire village on his shoulders. After that his dream just kept slipping further away from his mind, until he couldn't really care whether or not he ever got the job.

A last glance was thrown into the house before he walked out, door slamming behind him, leaving all the memories behind as he walked towards the gates.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

There wasn't anybody to see him off. He had expected this though, as the only person that really knew he was leaving right now was Tsunade, and she wasn't likely to say anything about it for awhile. She had always been nice to him, and would give him some time to leave before she broke the news.

It was around five a.m when he got to the exit of the village, the sky was turning from pitch black to a dark blue, signaling the coming of dawn. Early risers were still inside preparing for a day of work, whether it be a day at the shop, a light exercise before a day off, or they were going out to kill the enemies of their country.

The guards gave him no trouble as he passed the threshold of the gate and headed out of the village for what he hoped was the last time.

He had decided while packing that he was going to head to the Land of Waves for awhile, to get his head sorted out a bit and meet with his old friends. The last time he saw Inari and Tazuna was when they had come to help with the rebuilding of Konoha, and he had promised them that he would visit them sometime after he had come back from the Kage Summit in Iron Country.

Once he had some time to reacquaint himself there he planned to wander for awhile, with no set timetable he could spend as much time in as many places as he wanted. Aside from wave, there were a few places he wanted to visit that Jiraiya him had been to on their three year training trip.

The next step after that would be to find some place permanent. While traveling was fun, it grew old rather quickly in his opinion. He wanted to find someplace out of the way, not a large city or a tiny village, but a medium sized town that wouldn't notice him moving in, but would have a population where people weren't completely unfamiliar with those around them.

He hadn't really decided how he would bring in money though. A farmer was his first thoughts, but honestly he didn't know the first thing about farming, and while he could learn it would likely be some time before he could bring in any money or food from it. The next job he came up with was finding a store owner that needed an extra hand and earn some money that way, but then he wasn't exactly going to be making enough money to own anything but an apartment.

And it likely wouldn't be a very good one either.

All that thinking was for later though, once he got out of Fire Country he could look around and see if he found any place that had what he wanted and figure out a job of some kind.

For now though, he was free. No villagers, no duties, no work, and no sour memories eating away at the inside of his skull.

And honestly, he wouldn't have it any other way.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

The massive structure loomed over him, cold concrete and steel beams taking on an eerie tone in the misty morning. He had finally reached the Great Naruto Bridge after four days of constant high speed travel, and he had to say that nearly eight years had not diminished it's grandeur at all. The bridge stretched on for a few miles ahead of him, and aside from a few cracks from the wet climate it was still the same as he remembered.

People went about their business about him as he stood there admiring what he had helped to create. Wave country was prospering with Gato dead and it was certainly showing, the ground near the front of the bridge was covered in cart tracks and travelers of all varieties surrounded him.

But the faces of the people was what really drove home how much things had changed.

Instead of a look of being crushed and poor, streaked with dirt and pale and hollow from starvation and sickness they held looks of happiness and contentment, well tanned and healthy skin that was stretched on one or two faces with plenty of fat. The rags that adorned most people eight years ago had been replaced with the clothes of wealthy merchants and commoners that could put food on the tables.

As he continued his walk towards the village on the other side of the bridge he felt a bit more of the weight he felt leave him. There was practically no similarities between this country and the one that had been under the heel of a tyrant not so long ago, and knowing that one was a big part of that certainly could do a lot to boost ones spirit.

_'It's just too bad that the rest of them couldn't be here.'_

He immediately regretted that thought, as it brought the bit of joy he had down to the ground and beat it mercilessly, then raped it and left it for dead in an alley.

Trying to tune out the bitter thoughts that had resurfaced in his mind, he looked up to realize that he was at the end of the bridge and that the village he left had changed even more than the people. What had once been a small little community that was mostly farmers and small store owners had morphed into a large town that in a few more years could easily be called a city.

With it's close proximity to the bridge, he really shouldn't have been surprised that it got this big. After all, if everyone who was coming in from land was forced to pass through here it stood to reason that it would grown at an extremely fast rate.

Still, the fact that it had grown _**this **_fast was nothing short of amazing.

While before there were only one to two story buildings and small stands that held very few wares there were now buildings as high as four stories with stands lining streets that were overflowing with people. Bright and gaudy signs could be seen every-which way and people were spending freely, no longer holding onto their meager amounts of money for the essentials.

Deciding that he had been traveling for long enough to warrant a break for food, he stepped into a nearby stand that sold various dishes and quickly looked over the menu. Seeing as they didn't have any ramen he resigned himself to an order of yakitori and a bowl of rice.

Despite it being slightly crowded due to the time of day, he still didn't see anyone he recognized and no one seemed to know who he was either. It seemed like with the rapid growth of this place a lot of new people had moved in, he could guess it had more than tripled based on the amount of people he saw in that streets, although that would only be a rough estimate.

When his order arrived he payed and ate quickly, leaving after a short trip to the bathroom.

Unfortunately he now had to deal with the problem of finding Tazuna's house. Between the huge changes to scenery and the amount of time since he had last been here he couldn't for the life of him figure out where it was.

The next hour was spent wandering the streets looking for something familiar before he came upon a sight that made him stop dead in his tracks.

It was a statue.

A statue of **him**.

It was bronze, about ten or twelve feet high and flanked on three sides by slightly smaller statues of his teammates in their thirteen year old forms and his teacher. He could tell that it was very well made, there was a great attention to detail and the resemblance was very strong, meaning it was likely created by someone that had seen them while they were there.

He wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, but at sometime a small grin had appeared on his face.

"Naruto? Is that you?"

Quickly turning around he found himself staring at a slightly older version of Tsunami.

She was very good looking for a woman who was coming up on forty years of age. Her hair was well kept and her face held no sign of wrinkling, but her skin had lost a bit of that youthful luster and her eyes looked a bit duller. A light green skirt that fell to about half way between her ankles and her knees clashed slightly with her dark blue shirt and by this point she was actually about four inches shorter than he himself was.

The grin he sported from seeing the monument widened into a full blown eye-closing smile and he let out a chuckle.

"Yep, it sure is!"

"Well it's been quite a while, hasn't it? I haven't seen you since you were a boy. Father said he and Inari saw you when they went to help rebuild Konoha." She was returning the grin with one of her own now.

"Well I've been busy and haven't had any time off for myself until now."

"Well it's certainly nice to see you again. I was here to get some ingredients for dinner, you're welcome to come over and eat with us if you want. I'm sure Inari would love to see you again."

"Ha, yeah that sounds awesome."

They chatted about small things, from how much he had grown to how things had been in their respective villages. Naruto made sure to leave out the fate of his team and him leaving his old life behind. Honestly he felt like he didn't want her or her family to know what he had done as it would most likely leave them with a much changed opinion about him. Thinking about it, he felt hypocritical for the things he had said to Inari about not being afraid now that he had left everything he knew behind because of some bad memories.

When the topic finally did change to his team he lied and said that he was the only one who had been given time off and that they weren't a team anymore due to changes in rank. Lying to Tsunami left a bitter taste in his mouth, as he was very sure she had told him no lies in their talk.

The shopping was over with soon and they were on their way back to the house within half an hour. He learned from her that they had moved to a larger house and had plenty of money now. Apparently Tazuna had been able to start his own construction company with the prestige from the bridge and with such a large boom in the town there was a huge number of contracts for new buildings coming his way.

Even after learning about Tazuna's new job he was struck dumb when he saw the _mansion _that they lived in.

It was three stories high. Constructed of a very strong and beautiful looking wood and embellished with designs of various colors shapes and sizes. The roof was shingled a dark green and brown with gold trimming on corners and the front door frame.

It looked to have three wings that surrounded a pond and collection of trees. Each wing looked like it could have ten rooms, with the one in the middle looking slightly larger than the other two.

Regaining a bit of control he muttered a single word.

"Damn."

Tsunami laughed quite loudly at this.

"Well I'm glad it impresses you."

"Saying this place impresses me is like saying I like ramen. I mean, wow, this is way bigger than I thought it would be."

"Father designed it himself, it took awhile to build and cost him a lot of money."

"I bet it did."

He followed Tsunami into the house and helped her to put the groceries away. She began making dinner afterwords and told him that Inari and his grandfather were probably out fishing right now.

"So how long are you going to be staying?"

He hadn't thought about that yet. With no pressing concerns he figured he would leave when he would leave and had left it at that. Thinking about it now that wasn't the best way to go about it, especially considering the fact that he hated hotel rooms. The god awful tackiness and impersonality of them drove him to want to ram his head into the walls whenever he stayed in one.

"I dunno, I'll probably stay a few days but I haven't really thought about it much. I'd need to see about getting a room somewhere and I would need to be leaving in about a week."

A week was just a random measurement of time he had thrown out. It would probably be good though, as there wasn't much to do here but spend time with his friends and eat.

"Well why don't you stay here? We have a guest room and more than enough money to feed another person."

"Really? I mean I wouldn't want to be a bother..."

"Please, you helped us more than enough to earn a week of food and a room. We likely wouldn't be alive right now if not for you, and if we were our lives would be miserable."

"Alright, if you don't mind than I'd be more than glad to."

"Good, now why don't you go and rest a bit, I'll tell you when Inari and father get back."

"Thanks a lot, I'll be waiting then."

A quick walk after some directions from Tsunami and he was relaxing in a double bed in a well furnished room, his shoes discarded near the door.

Upon hitting the bed he found that he was quite tired from his journey. He had woken up at roughly five in the morning after sleeping for only six hours and it was currently seven at night. All the walking and little food had left him in a bit of a bad mood, and he ended up dozing off for a little while.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

He was pulled from his wonderful dream of a world full of free ramen and large chested naked women and brought back into reality by a rough shaking of his shoulder.

"Hey! Naruto-nii-san wake up!"

The cause of this rude awakening was none other than a sixteen year-old Inari. The pessimistic little boy of yesteryear was gone, replaced now by a teenager that would be a man very soon.

"Mhnnnn... Lemme alone, I'hm tired."

"Come on, you don't see me for four years and all you can think of now is to sleep? Besides dinner's ready and gramps and mom want you down there."

"Alright, alright I'll be down."

He left the comfort of the bed reluctantly and stood up on shaky legs. Obviously the depth of his exhaustion had gone deeper than he thought, as he was groggy as hell and felt like a pile of shit.

Taking a good look at Inari, it was obvious that he had changed a lot more than his mother. While not as tall as him it was obvious that he was going to be a big man, being only about six inches shorter than he was and about a half an inch shorter than he had been at that age.

The striped hat he had as a child was still on his head, though it was obviously very worn. An open tunic-like shirt showed that he was used to labor, as he had a good deal of muscle. Completing the outfit was a pair of black pants that looked to be made of a very thick material, as they had obvious signs of being put through some tough conditions and hadn't ripped or worn out anywhere.

Tsunami had told him earlier that Inari had a job as a construction worker in his grandfather's company, and that he was learning the finer points of being an architect from Tazuna, and that he would be in charge of the company after the old man died. After all, a sixty seven year old man only had so long before he went down and his drinking didn't help in that respect.

After changing into some clothes he kept unsealed he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Ah, there he is! The little brat's grown up a lot I see. You're taller than I am now!"

Tazuna hadn't changed at all. He wore the exact same clothes he had seen him in four years ago when he was in Konoha, which was a copy of his outfit from eight years ago sans the stupid straw hat.

"And you're still a drunk old man!" Despite the fact that the comment was an insulting one, he delivered it with a smile, which was fully returned by the target.

"Ah whatever, you're always gonna be a brat to me. Enough of that though, let's get to the food!"

Dinner was certainly better than he had thought it would. He hadn't thought it would be bad, but the entire experience made him feel warm inside, and not for the first time he wished he had a family of his own. The food was great, Tsunami had prepared gyoza with beef, and served it with the fish that they two men had caught and rice on the side.

More importantly than that was the conversation. There was no discussion of missions or new techniques that they had made, instead they told stories of their lives and talked about what was going on in the world at large.

They were quite shocked when he told them about all his exploits as a ninja, from killing Pein when he attacked Konoha to finishing off the other members of Akatsuki and all the other ninjas he had beaten.

While Inari couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was and Tazuna was going on about how he had never thought the little shrimp that had tried to beat him up when he insulted his height had gone on to be one of the most powerful warriors in existence, Tsunami was chiding him for doing such reckless things and putting himself in danger.

It was nice to know that they cared, and the warm feeling that was in his stomach grew even stronger throughout it all. He was certain that if he had a family that they would be a perfect example of how he would want it to be.

After dinner he headed back upstairs to shower and turn in for the night, his stomach full and his mind feeling much better than it had in days.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

The week he spent with them seemed to go by in a blur.

From fishing with Inari and Tazuna to taking some minor cooking lessons with Tsunami he was able to forget for awhile the troubles that he still had to face. For just a short while he could not think about having to find a new home and start a whole new life.

It was a blissful experience, spending so much time with a small group of people where the objective wasn't to go out and kill someone or steal something. All that there was to do was talk and joke around, the closest thing he had to this was when he was with Ero-sennin and even then there was always thoughts of Akatsuki and Sasuke lingering in his mind, and the training was back-breaking to say the least.

He had went to visit Zabuza and Haku's graves on the third day, and unsealed Kubikiri Houcho from one of his many scrolls and put it back in it's rightful place. Suigetsu had been killed a year ago, and he been carrying around the sword. Apparently he stole it from Zabuza's grave immediately after joining up with Sasuke and had gotten it broken in their attempt to kill Danzo. How it got fixed was a mystery, but he was glad that it was so he could bring it back to where it belonged.

All too soon the good times were over and he was standing on the front porch of their large house with his pack hung on his shoulders again.

"Well, I guess it's time then..." His voice was softer than it normally was, not really liking the idea of leaving just yet. Still he couldn't just stay here forever and the less attached he got the better it would be for him in the end. Not to mention the fact that if he stayed too long he would start to be a burden on them.

"We'll miss you brat. You're welcome to come by at any time, the rest of your team is too."

"Yeah I'll be sure to tell them." '_Or not.'_

Tsunami was the next one to speak.

"Don't go and do anything that you're going to regret, we want to see you again and not at a funeral alright?"

"Yeah! Then I wouldn't get to hear anymore awesome stories from you Nii-san."

"Maa, ma. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. I've already kicked the asses of everyone who could even think of beating me. There's not a person alive who can do more than put a scratch on me."

Inari cracked a grin and laughed a bit.

"Yeah, well someday I'll get you in your sleep. The strongest man on earth beat up by a construction worker, how cool would I be then, huh?"

"You'd be pretty damn cool."

With a final few words he started off again, setting his mind finally onto where his next stop was going to be.

_'I suppose it doesn't really matter.'_

And that was true. He had no real preference on where he was headed, the only thing that mattered was where he ended up staying, not what trips he would take along the way.

Thinking over his location on a map he decided to head to Water country. It would be fairly easy to get there and he had a few memories of how beautiful it was.

With a decision made, he started on his way to the bridge again, intent on reaching the ferry to get there in two days tops.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

A/n: God dammit, I wrote about 3000 words of this in one sitting. I was getting so pissed off at myself for not just getting this done that I finally managed to buckle down and do it.

Anyways, here it is sorry for taking two weeks and only getting a slightly bigger chapter out and for rushing the Wave country part and cramming it into one chapter but I honestly want to get onto the part of the story where Hinata shows up, which will start next chapter.

Also, in regards to the current manga, I want to kick Kishimoto in the balls for coming up with the shit he has in the Kage Summit Arc. Seriously, the Ten-tailed beast? I mean GOD! Blegh, just my opinions.

Review and tell me if you see in plot holes so I can fill them in. I hate plot holes and if I make 'em I want to fix 'em as soon as I can.

**Posted 10/18/09.**


	3. They Loved

**Chapter's done.**

**11/27/09 – Day after Thanksgiving, so it's a bit late to say this but happy Turkey day everyone.**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

There were two things Tsubasa Sato loved in life, money and power, and to him the pursuit of all other aspects of life was secondary.

Money could be used in an amazing variety of ways, from buying stocks in business and hiring assassins to dispose of your enemies to bribing people to look the other way or make a slight slip of the mind when recording something.

However, money couldn't always get what one may want, which is where power came in. With enough force, and liberal use of fear and numbers, one could destroy the faith of zealots and kill the hope of the largest optimists.

When he had still lived in Kumogakure, he had been Jonin, and while not particularly powerful in the physical sense he was renowned for his ruthless nature and lack of any form of moral code. He took jobs that other ninjas wouldn't even begin to consider, and did them quickly and effectively.

All without even the slightest trace of remorse.

To him the details were inconsequential, if some children were to be killed it didn't matter to him. If he was to abduct a woman so she could become a slave for a dirty man then so what? She would have had ended up having sex sooner or later.

The world was unfair and full of shit already, so who would care if he heaped a bit more onto the ever growing pile?

With the pay for these awful deed being so much greater than some of the more _clean_ duties a shinobi could perform his wealth grew to great heights, taking his power along with it.

Soon he had invested the money he earned into businesses all through out the country, and his political pull increased. No longer was he just some ninja, he had a council chair in his village and respect from all the citizens.

The power he gained was, however, not enough. He had an insatiable desire to increase his influence even further, and no matter where he got to it would never be enough. Contrary to what one may think, the higher he got the more it grew inside of him, until it was so strong that he made a terrible decision.

He decided that no matter what he had to do, or who he had to kill that before his life was done he would be the Raikage.

However, there were a multitude of problems with this. First and foremost he most certainly wasn't the strongest ninja in the village. If he were to be quite honest with himself he was actually only a decent Jonin, and all the things he gained he did so with using underhanded methods and deceit.

Unlike a large number of his colleagues he was not so stupid as to try and use flashy techniques and fight with honor. He was a ninja who struck from the shadows, kidnapped friends and relatives, or poisoned his targets, but he never engaged in direct combat unless necessary.

The second problem was a slightly less serious one, but still a very large issue to consider. It was his heritage. He did not come from a large and prestigious clan, nor was he the sun of a famous ninja. No, the family he came from was mostly farmers, and the last ninja to come out of it was his great grand uncle, who got to the rank of Chunnin before suffering an injury in his knee that forced him to retire.

And of course the there was the third and final issue of the current Raikage. He was a brute of a man who suffered no slights to his person or close friends without serious repercussions. If he were to openly challenge the massive man for the position he had no doubt in his mind he would be a smear on the ground within seconds.

These issues begged the question, how was he to do it? All the chips seemed stacked against him and he knew that he would have to use his brain to it's fullest here.

So he waited patiently, waiting for an opportunity to present itself to him. When it came he would grab it with everything he had and gain what he sought.

And finally, four years ago a small glimmer of hope shone through to him.

The Raikage had made a very large mistake. Putting his brother's safety before that of the village he sent a group consisting of over fifty Jonin and one hundred Chunin to hunt down the errant man and return him to the village.

And this group ran right into the three remaining member of Akatsuki in a confrontation with their target.

The resulting slaughter led to the death of the disgusting plant man named Zetsu, that however was the only success. When the ninja returned to the village they had succeeded in their goal, but the cost was great.

Eleven Jonin and twenty six Chunin returned, all the others had died for the sake of returning one person to the village.

While many had recognized that it was necessary to save the demon host of the eight-tailed beast, there was a much larger group of the population that had been furious. The loss of so much life had left many families and friends displeased with their current leader. Plenty who hadn't even lost friends in the battle were upset over the favoritism shown towards the Kage's family.

And he had taken full advantage of that.

If he couldn't gain the position through the normal means then he would have to take it by force.

Every penny he had was put towards the hiring of outside forces, while he concentrated on building up supporters within the village itself. He already held enough sway to bend away a few councilors, and with the growing forces that he had it reached a point where there was real hope for victory.

Four months in he he made a mistake. In his excitement he got hasty, wanting to get his plan to take off before the situation cooled off and the wounds caused by the incident lessened with time. He approached a high ranking civilian official with his plan,without any way to assure that he would join, and the man said he would consider the offer.

This was a lie. He reported Tsubasa to an ANBU commander, and a full investigation was launched into everything from the money he spent to the time he spent out of the village.

This led to him being discovered within a week, and everything he worked for was blown away.

Those who supported him were killed, his assets were seized, power revoked, and a bounty was placed on his head.

Of course, he had already left by the time that these changes were put into effect. The second he heard that his actions were being monitored and his previous activities investigated he knew he was going to be caught. Leaving behind everything but the money on his person he fled the village immediately.

For two years he laid low in the western regions of Earth Country in a small cottage. He would train himself to keep in shape and hunt for his food so he wouldn't starve.

The search for him had been over for quiet awhile by this point, but he took the lesson of caution from his experience and decided that he would err on the side of safety.

However, he was sick and tired of the poverty and powerless existence he held, and so he did what people who loose everything do.

He started from scratch.

There was no shortage of wandering thugs looking for a job, and with the right words and a small show of force he could start his life as a bandit.

There was no chance of him ever regaining the power he had, after an attempted coup no village would trust him and if Cloud was to discover he was operating anything larger than a bakery he would be assassinated within a month.

This is where we find him today, leading a band of highwaymen close to the border of Lightning Country. It was his own form of petty revenge, if he couldn't hurt the Raikage in any serious way he could at least do some damage to trade in the area and create some paperwork.

Tsubasa may have been smart, but even his rational thought process could be overwhelmed by anger every now and then.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto Uzumaki loved two things in his nomadic life, ramen and sake.

Ramen went without saying really. Anybody who had even a small amount of contact with him could tell that he had a borderline obsession with the food, though very few understood why. It was not simply the taste, because he would fully admit that, while it was certainly good, it was by no means an amazing dish.

He loved it because of the memories associated with it.

The meals he had shared with his friends, the old man, and Iruka had been among the happiest moments of his life, moments that he would treasure forever.

For someone who never had family, the time he spent with his friends in the dinky little stall called Ichiraku was like home.

It was really unfortunate that life was such a cruel bitch and had taken those friends away from him, and those that it left alive moved on. They were by no means not completely gone from his life, but their relationships were definitely strained.

Lee had a family. Yeah, shocker huh? He had met a civilian woman who didn't care about the atrocious way he dressed and talked. She loved him for his spirit and Naruto was happy for them.

Neji was the clan head of the Hyuga, which didn't exactly leave much time for friends. When he had nearly died on the mission with Ten Ten the job had been forced on him to keep him out of danger. He was engaged to some princess or another as a political marriage, and from what he could tell Neji hated the woman.

But when you're in such an important position sacrifices must be made right? He probably would have fought against it more had his only sane team mate survived. Try as he might to hide it there was no mistaking he had cared for her as more than a friend.

Then he would have his head chopped off.

Kiba was even more depressing then that though. He wasn't married, and wasn't likely to be in a long time with the way he was living. Shino had been close to him, and when he first lost him he threw himself into drinking like a maniac and sleeping with any street trash he could find.

Unfortunately he hadn't ever managed to get out of that. He toned it down as time went on but he was still drunk constantly when not on missions and was sleeping with random women he picked up at bars.

To put it simply he was a mess.

Sai was... well Sai. He was a cold, emotionless, wise-cracking bastard. That was pretty much the only constant out of the teams. No matter what happened Sai would always be Sai and when the apocalypse came around he would ask the four horsemen if they had penises under all that armor.

Then he would have his head chopped off.

The whole thing was just one big depressing mind fuck, and he would much rather ponder other things. Ramen and the memories he had before the Konoha 12 became what it was today fell into this category.

So while ramen may have been a given, sake was another story.

He had first tried it when he was eighteen, Kakashi had taken him out to a bar for his birthday along with some of the remaining members of the group. It was there that he discovered that the healing powers he got from the Kyubi helped to burn alcohol out of his system at an extremely advanced rate.

In the end he drank five bottles all by himself before he fell off his stool and passed out in a puddle of his own vomit.

While it wasn't recognized on his first trip to the hospital, after fifteen drinking binges over a period of two years questions arose. For example, why his liver looked like it belonged to a man who had never even drunken a Zima.

It was one of the few benefits that having a demon fox trapped inside of you had. Right up there with healing fatal wounds in seconds and temporary bursts of power that could make an entire army shit their collective pants.

So he drank like a sailor whenever he felt like there was a need to celebrate or mourn something, usually the former, as with the lack of duties he had to suffer through recently there were significantly more happy times than there were sad.

It had been four months since he left Wave. While his original plan was to find a place to settle down, he had quickly been reminded of the joys of the road, and hadn't been able to get away from it. Tea country, Sea country, Water country, and a few smaller and less well known places were on the list of his visited locations, and he wasn't planing on stopping just yet.

While he didn't like having to pass through his former homeland to come here, there was plenty of reasons to make a visit and look around a bit. Kumo was right along Konoha in terms of military power, due largely in part the thriving economy.

Shipping on it's southern and eastern coasts brought in large enough revenues itself, but combined with the fact that there were literally hundreds of ore and diamond mines in the mountain ranges that stretched through the area and you had a very wealthy country.

The border was roughly five to seven miles behind him at this point, and he was thoroughly enjoying the weather that the lowlands had to offer. It was a mild day in early fall, the sparse trees around the road were losing leaves and the air had a slight chill to it that complimented the warm sun perfectly.

All in all he was in a very happy mood.

That is, until a kunai came out of nowhere and nearly ripped into his throat like a knife through butter.

By the time he had recovered the enemy was already on him, being trailed by a group of thirteen obviously weaker enemies that had all the grace of a seventy year old man.

A second later and a brace of shuriken sailed gracefully through the air, accompanied by some less graceful knives, rocks, and what he could of sworn was a _bottle_ flying towards him.

It was quite obvious at this point who had talent and who didn't.

In a single fluid motion he swung a hidden kunai out from his sleeve and deflected four shuriken, grabbing the remaining two and knocking the more well aimed knives from the air, ducking under the remaining projectiles and hurling his weapon into a mans skull.

The men gave a momentary pause in their charge, which was all he needed to off two more of them with some well placed attacks.

Seeing this, the leader (or at least he assumed him to be the leader based on several glaring details) pulled back, being shortly followed by the remaining men.

"I can see you have some skill then. The prudent choice here would be to leave your possessions on the

ground and walk away, there is no reason for me to lose more men or you your life."

Naruto didn't even need to utter a single word. They were standing close to one of the fallen thugs, and if they had taken any time to observe the corpse they would have noticed something odd about the weapon lodged in his skull.

It was, for the most part, just a normal kunai with the only difference being the pair of prongs off the middle blade,and a small seal covered tag wrapped neatly around the handle.

A smirk covered the blond mans face, and before the assailants could move a single muscle in their bodies a flash of yellow enveloped the area, followed the blissful embrace of death.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Hinata Hyuga loved her life.

For most people this would seem strange, as there was nothing very special about it. She lived in a small village in the Land of Lightning with no mother and worked in a flower shop her father had bought years ago.

Due to her father's age she had to run the shop by herself, and worked many hours every day to keep their heads above the water.

A flower shop though, does not bring in much money and her and her father just made ends meet every month. While not exactly poor, she certainly wasn't well off either.

But who was she to complain? There was a roof over her head and a meal on the table for her every night, and the routine she had suited her just fine.

Even through the hard work and the mediocre living conditions she loved it because of the simplicity and the happiness she got with her two person family, and never really aspired for anything greater.

She didn't want to be the best or to own a large amount of land, or do anything else grand and memorable for that matter. Nor did she want to have large amounts of money and buy frivolous things like jewelry and clothes.

For Hinata, none of that mattered.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Hiashi loved his daughter.

For her he would climb any mountain, commit any sin no matter how great, and destroy anything that so much as slightly annoyed her.

When her mother had died in childbirth his world had fallen apart. If not for her he would have likely lost himself to despair, and lamented how cruel the world was for everything it would continuously throw at him.

Instead, he worked for her.

It was what Natsume would have wanted. That was all the excuse he needed to devote his entire life to his daughters welfare.

His own love for the soft-spoken, beautiful, and unfortunately shy girl just made it that much sweeter when he got to see her face light up with joy at something he could for her.

That wasn't a regular occurrence though. Money was tight between them, and he had gotten up in his years, making it harder to put in that little bit of effort needed to get out with more money.

Despite it all though he would spend not a penny on himself and put everything he could into getting her something at every special occasion.

Hinata was a modest girl though, and would always tell him the same old piece about how he shouldn't be wasting the money on her and get himself something for once.

And every time he answered the same way.

_'The best gift I can receive is seeing you happy.'_

While others might have wanted more in life he was perfectly content were he was, spending days with aching bones and nights in front of a fire relaxing with a cup of tea.

If he were given a choice he would take his current life over all others, with not a hint of regret for the remainder of his days.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto was absolutely wasted.

After the debacle on the road he had taken all the things he could off the bodies of the bandits, and found a massive amount of money on their collective bodies.

Being quite frank, the only one with any kind of real combat prowess was the singular shinobi amongst them. The fact that they had gathered this much meant that they had to have been here for awhile.

The thought brought a bitter taste to his mouth as he thought about the people that died to line the pockets of some bastards. They hadn't even been spending it either, just collecting it up for some purpose or other that would now never be fulfilled.

He went to the nearest village and dropped the bag in the middle of an alley, hoping that some body who actually needed it would come across it at some time.

Because it wasn't like he did.

After Jiraiya had died, Naruto had found out that the perverted old man had left nearly everything he had to him in his will.

He owned six different houses throughout various countries, as well as enough money to buy twenty more.

Between his conservative spending of money and the odd jobs he picked up along the way he really didn't need to worry about a job for a long while, and he upon realizing how long he could last if just camped out every now and then he had decided it would be nice to spend a little more time on the road then he original had planned to.

Following his trip to the alley he decided to indulge in one of his two vices and dropped by a local bar. There he began pounding alcohol at an inhuman rate.

Which led to him getting buzzed.

Which led to him getting slightly _more _buzzed.

Which led to drunkenness.

Which, finally, led to his current state of being so smashed he couldn't remember what his name was anymore.

The bartender, being sufficiently annoyed by a certain loudmouthed blonde told him he wasn't going to serve him another drop.

...Which led to said blonde punching him in the face.

After a rather humorous situation in which three bouncers tried, and failed quite miserably, he left on his own. But not before _yelling_ to the entire bar that the whole place was filled with a bunch of pansies and ugly ass broads.

Naruto was not a very pleasant drunk, as you may have guessed by this point.

Deciding that the hammering in his head was bad enough to call for some sleep, he wandered aimlessly looking for a bed. In his current state he didn't think much about the fact that weren't going to be any beds in the middle of the road and continued his doomed search for a place to lay down.

Eventually giving up on the idea of finding a bed in what he deemed a town full of insomniacs, he trekked a short way out of the village and plopped down in a field of flowers. Within three minutes he was out like a light and snoring so loudly not even a bear would be brave enough to come close.

It was seven hours before someone found him. This someone was there to pick flowers that she would sell in her fathers store that day.

When she woke him up, neither of them knew that they had found someone they would love more than their lives or all the ramen and sake in the world.

Tsubasa on the other hand found nothing that he loved. He did however find something that he hated very much.

Flies.

Or more specifically the **maggots** that came from those flies. You would hate them too if they were burrowing into your skin and eating away at you.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**End Chapter 3**

Alright I forced myself to finish this up. It's the same in some parts, but a lot has been changed. The biggest thing would be the short little "Where they are now" for the remaining members of the rookie nine. Still not perfect but meh, I'm lazy and this is good enough for my standards.

Oh, the manga chapter today was nice. Kisame getting decapitated made me laugh my ass off, and Sai has almost redeemed himself in my eyes by telling Naruto about the plan to kill off Sasuke.

He's still got a bit of a ways to go for that "LOL NARUTO LUBS U SAKURA" comment though. That was some stupid shit.

Anyways, read and review, and yes I did delete the original chapter then repost this so it would update and everyone would see it. The "Where are they now" parts are going to be important to the story later on and you may be confused if you don't read them.

In addition to this, I also started working on a new story, thought it's not likely to be out for awhile. It's going to have no pairings aside from hints ( sorry no Naruto/anyone or Hinata/anyone, unless it's one-sided from the other person) and is going to focus more on a bit of a horror, though it's not likely to be scary for anyone reading :P

Doesn't make much sense does it? Whatever.


	4. Abandoned

Dropped like a poor baby on it's head. Sorry.

I really didn't plan this one well enough and only realized after the third chapter that I had no idea where the hell I was going with it.

I may rewrite it later if I'm in a bored mood, but for right now consider it dead.


End file.
